Preparing a Laser Scanned Track

[Koray Bala]

Hi All !

We are a local racing team in Turkey and considering about preparing a laser scanned track. Currently Istanbul Park can be easily found on tracks however there are 2 more tracks in Turkey which take a part on local racing tournament. We have built a simulator prototype for a try-out and PCC 2007 mod had shown a significant performance on Istanbul Park (Almost the at the same performance). That made me to think about using rFactor as a practise tool.

However, I am not familiar with track modding. Over a past month, I had looked on almost every single video and website about track building and results are promising. I had tried to have a evaluation copy of Bob's Track Builder but somehow I could not recieved the confirmation e-mail and that resulted as nothing. Then I have decided on laser scanning and 3D modelling of track. Currently I had talked with a local architecture company about it and they said that they can provide the Point-Cloud data and 3D model of race track. Also the track surface can be adopted on STL data (Which is almost the same surface of track).

But the thing is, I still do not know anything about track making on 3ds Max 2010. I have the plugins but could not find a tutorial about it.

I need assistance on this subject and open of every-single idea.

Please help me !

Best Regards,
Koray

 

[dandar]

Dear Koray, your objective looks very promissing, however it's impossible for any of us to teach you (using the forums) the fully usage of 3d max. In order to make a track you need to have good skills and knowledge "at least of the tool" your going to use.

I would suggest to look for videos from the web showing the process involved to make a track, there are a lot published on youtube, and is better to see something in order to learn, than reading and dealing with the interpretation, expression and point of view of each one of us. Or better yet, subscribe to a 3d max full course class if you are starting from scratch.

But fell free to search the forums or ask your own question about a detailed subject, i'm sure you will get going with time and patience.

Best regards,
D.

 

[Koray Bala]

Dear Koray, your objective looks very promissing, however it's impossible for any of us to teach you (using the forums) the fully usage of 3d max. In order to make a track you need to have good skills and knowledge "at least of the tool" your going to use.

I would suggest to look for videos from the web showing the process involved to make a track, there are a lot published on youtube, and is better to see something in order to learn, than reading and dealing with the interpretation, expression and point of view of each one of us. Or better yet, subscribe to a 3d max full course class if you are starting from scratch.

But fell free to search the forums or ask your own question about a detailed subject, i'm sure you will get going with time and patience.

Best regards,
D.

Hello Dandar,

Thank you for your kind words.

Actually the thing is, I am quite familiar with 3D design and software. I have used SketchUp a lot and controls are similar. However, the thing I am stuck is actually on two basis;

How to define the start and end of the track for the game ?

Actually the 3D model would be provided by the company that would handle the laser scanning on point-cloud data. I thought to do it, but I guess 2 Km track would make me sick while preparing the objects from 0 experience in 3ds Max. So in brief, the 3D environment would be provided. The remaining things are the data files about day time and so on. I had read them on a guide but could not find the defining the start and end point of track.

Do you have any idea about this dandar ?

Thanks a bunch.

 

[WiZPER]

You have a steep learning curve ahead of you, you can't simply define start/end and put a car inside a 3D model.

First of all it'll have to be created by the standards of the gmotor graphics engine, meaning having the entire track cut up and defined as specific .GMT objects with different charactaristics (wall, guardrails, driveable/none-drivable, collision/none-collision, curbs, etc.

Secondly all objects must have assigned materials using gmotor-shaders, again with certain values defined.

And finally the game must be tought where track limits, pits, garages etc. are located - by creating an .AIW file.

Out of curiousity, which are the other two tracks ?

 

[redapg]

I would agree to WiZPER.
First try to get the track loaded and showing up in rfactor-menue. Take *.scn and *.gdb and other files from an existing track, to look how it is defined.

The settings of Start/Finishline, Pit-in/-out, Racing-line ......are simply then. You just have to add some 3d-objects where the game shall notice these points. The rest will be done with the AIW-editor

One hint: when creating the track in 3DSmax, set the crossing of the YXZ-axes somewhere on the road. I mean do not set it above or under it for example. That makes it easier to use the AIW-editor later

 

[Mangoletsi]

You have a steep learning curve ahead of you, you can't simply define start/end and put a car inside a 3D model.

First of all it'll have to be created by the standards of the gmotor graphics engine, meaning having the entire track cut up and defined as specific .GMT objects with different charactaristics (wall, guardrails, driveable/none-drivable, collision/none-collision, curbs, etc.

Secondly all objects must have assigned materials using gmotor-shaders, again with certain values defined.

And finally the game must be tought where track limits, pits, garages etc. are located - by creating an .AIW file.

Out of curiousity, which are the other two tracks ?

According to google, it lists 3 circuits

1. Istanbul Park
2. İzmit Körfez Circuit
3. Izmir-Pinabashi

and also mentions an Airfield for drag racing.

 

[Koray Bala]

First of all, I am a bit sorry or delayed reply. I had been ill terribly :/

You have a steep learning curve ahead of you, you can't simply define start/end and put a car inside a 3D model.

First of all it'll have to be created by the standards of the gmotor graphics engine, meaning having the entire track cut up and defined as specific .GMT objects with different charactaristics (wall, guardrails, driveable/none-drivable, collision/none-collision, curbs, etc.

Secondly all objects must have assigned materials using gmotor-shaders, again with certain values defined.

And finally the game must be tought where track limits, pits, garages etc. are located - by creating an .AIW file.

Out of curiousity, which are the other two tracks ?

Well, thanks a bunch for info. I did not know that. I have been curious about .GMT objects. Especially about characteristics. Do you mean that I have to define the surface differences ?

The other two tracks are Izmit Korfez and Izmir Park Pınarbaşı.

I would agree to WiZPER.
First try to get the track loaded and showing up in rfactor-menue. Take *.scn and *.gdb and other files from an existing track, to look how it is defined.

The settings of Start/Finishline, Pit-in/-out, Racing-line ......are simply then. You just have to add some 3d-objects where the game shall notice these points. The rest will be done with the AIW-editor

One hint: when creating the track in 3DSmax, set the crossing of the YXZ-axes somewhere on the road. I mean do not set it above or under it for example. That makes it easier to use the AIW-editor later

Thanks for the hint. So, at first I should to create the environment on 3DS Max (which in graphics detail must be capable to be handled by gMotor) then I would include the other specs according to coordinates I guess ?

According to google, it lists 3 circuits

1. Istanbul Park
2. İzmit Körfez Circuit
3. Izmir-Pinabashi

and also mentions an Airfield for drag racing.

Airfield is not used much but I am considering on creating the tracks of İzmir Pınarbaşı and Izmit Körfez. İstanbul Park is already imported into the game and works quite well actually.

 

[redapg]

Sorry, sometimes i'm not sure if i understand everything right, because my english is not so good...
But, like Mangoletsi said before. To make your track(s) work, you'll have to care for some things. e.g. the material-names for street, gravel, gras...to let the game know how to handle it. The best will be, you get a *.tdf file from a standard-ISI-track, Essington for example or the terrain.tdf in the Locations folder and look inside what kind of materials are supported. The defined names of the materials can be others. For example gravel don't has to be named as grvl(...) you can name it sand if you want. But you have to set the choosen name into the *.tdf file for your track in the Gravel-section in the line Materials=. And caution, if you, for example name the normal road (section "roads"): roadtrack and bumpy roadparts (section "Roads Bumps LVL1"): roadbumpy, the game will make no difference in behavior of these different roadparts, because both names start with "road". It don't matters that roadtrack and roadbumpy are different words, the game just sees that both begin with "road" and so it treats both the same way. Be sure to always use unique names.